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President’s Message

As I write my first “President’s Letter,” it does not go unnoticed that I owe a great debt to my predecessor, Marianna Janz-Wecke and those who came before her. My goal is to move with SCAS into the future, meet challenges head on, and celebrate the beauty of citizen-to-citizen bridge-building one relationship at a time.

In times of polarization, one side takes all deal-making, opportu-nities to seek consensus whether working together across the aisle or the Atlantic, are harder and harder to come by. Yet, needed now more than ever. Involvement in Sarasota Sister Cities activities and getting to know others is a great start, but at least for me it is only the be-ginning. While looking back at our 2018 Strategic Goals and Ob-jectives, I noticed that a common thread binding almost all of the individual goals together was “improving the quality of our relationships” including:

• Our SCAS Membership

• Our International Sister Cities

• Our City of Sarasota Government

• Our SCAS City Directors and Board Members

• Our Community and Alliance Organizations

Our City Directors continue to build relationships with their counterparts in our Sister Cities.

• Over the summer a delegation from Sarasota visited our Sister City, Perpignan, France.

SCAS Board of Directors 2019-2020

Toni Duval President

Janet Wilkins Secretary

Gloria Grenier Treasurer

Gloria Grenier Art & Culture VP

Craig Hullinger

Business & Econ Development VP

Beth Ruyle-Hullinger Cities & Candidate Cities

VP

Jana Stanley Communication & PR VP

Dawn Graber Education & Youth VP

Isabelle Eidet Membership VP

Raymond Young Programs & Planning VP

Charlotte Hull Slyva Kanderal

Events Co-Directors

Inside

Speaker’s Bureau 3-4

Luncheon at Bird Key 5-8

Membership News 9

Upcoming Events 10-11

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• CD Mike Fehily is hosting a delegation from Merida, Mexico who will be visiting Sarasota in December, and in collaboration with the Ringling Museum of Art who have agreed to let one of the guests stay on the grounds. A highlight of the visit includes a Mexican Dance performance to kick start the museum’s new La-tino initiative.

• Two other City Directors recently visited their Sister Cities for the first time. Douglas Sparks visited Xiamen, China and Miriam Kramer, was awarded a grant from Community Foundation of Sarasota for a trip to Mos-cow, Russia as part of a Sister City International delega-tion and then on to Vladimir, Russia.

• As we have moved Treviso, Italy to emeritus status and with involvement from Sarasota Opera Maestro Victor DeRenzi, SCAS is currently in the early stages of making Busseto, Italy, a “Friendship City”. Philip Gordon, the Busseto City Director held his first project status meeting and is working with alliance organizations; Sar-asota Italian Cultural Events (SICE) and Gulf Coast Italian Cultural Society (GICS).

The Sister Cities International Annual Leadership Conference will be held in Tampa in November 2020. Florida Sister Cities will have the opportunity to participate and I encourage all members who believe in citizen-to-citizen dialogue and diplo-macy to attend. My personal commitment to learn more about our Alliance Organizations includes acceptance of invitations for happy hours, picnics, and other great events. I’m learning a lot about community cultural heritage and other organizations and hope to learn more. “It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it” and I enjoy every minute of it. I look forward to hearing your stories and about what brought you to SCAS and your ideas about how our organization can best serve your needs and that of our community.

SCAS City Directors

2019-2020

Dunfermline, Scotland

Pauline Mitchell (CD)

Karen Malesky (ACD)

Merida, Mexico

Michael Fehily (CD)

Perpignan, France

Marie des Neiges

Grossas (CD)

Rapperswill-Jona,

Switzerland

Nelly Camardo (CD)

Charlotte Hull (ACD)

Tel Mond, Israel

Jonathan Katz (CD)

Alice Cotman (ACD)

Kim Sheintal (ACD)

Vladimir, Russia

Miriam Kramer (CD)

Xiamen, China Douglas Sparks (CD)

Larry Bennison (ACD)

Duane Finger (ACD)

Busseto, Italy

Phillip Gordon (CD)

Kenney DeCamp (ACD)

Mirco Chiodi (ACD)

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Toni Duval

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Over 70 people attended our Fall Speaker’s Bureau kickoff at the Selby

Library. The presenter was Wojtek Sawa, President of Polish-American

Friends of the Arts and Sciences. The title of his presentation was “The

Other Europe - Today,” focusing on Central and Eastern Europe, its econ-

omies, cultures, modern-day challenges, accomplishments, and its

changing place in Europe and the world.

After the presentation, Margot Zarzycka-Whitelaw, a violinist from the

Sarasota Symphony Orchestra, and a winner and finalist of numerous Eu-

ropean violin competitions, played a few samples of classical music with

Central and Eastern European folk influences.

Speaker Wojtek Sawa

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Meet-n-Greet Happy Hour After Program

Element Restaurant

Margot Zarzycka-Whitelaw

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September Luncheon

This was our first luncheon after the summer break and members were happy

to see each other back and catch up. Sarah Wertheimer, Executive Director of

the organization Embracing Our Differences, was the speaker. Embracing Our

Differences champions diversity and fosters the values of inclusion, compas-

sion and respect through art and education initiatives. Its annual outdoor art

exhibit, celebrating the theme of “enriching lives through diversity”, showcas-

es the art and words of thousands of artists and writers from around the

world. The exhibition has attracted 2.7 million visitors since its inception in

2004.

During the luncheon, Membership VP Isabelle Eidet introduced and welcomed

new members and our newly elected CD for Busseto, Phillip Gordon.

President Duval and speaker Sarah Wertheimer Sarah Wertheimer

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Membership VP Isabelle Eidet Busseto CD Phillip Gordon

Alice Cotman, ACD Tel Mond speaking to guests New member introductions

To see more photos , go to our Facebook page

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October Luncheon

October luncheon started with a short introduction by our Programs and Plan-

ning VP Raymond Young, followed by President Toni Duval who greeted and wel-

comed our new member Doris Hurwitz. The speaker of our October Luncheon

was Robert Rogers, Director of Community Outreach, Sarasota Friendship Center.

During the presentation, Robert shared many inspiring stories about the volun-

teers, participants and staff at the Sarasota Friendship Center. He spoke about

the history of the organization; how it has evolved over the years from offering a

few activities to its currently expanded wide range of programs.

President Duval and speaker Robert Rogers Programs & Planning VP Raymond Young

Speaker Robert Rogers

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Sarasota Assistant City Manager Marlon Brown

meets-n-greets

Group Photo

(Please go to our facebook page and tag yourself the photo)

To see more photos , go to our Facebook page

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SPONSORS

The SCAS Board of Directors thanks our Sponsor member, Mr. Michael Bernard for your gener-ous donation.

CONDOLENCES

Richard Storm of Sarasota, FL passed away on Oct 19, 2019. Richard served as the Honorary Vice-Consul of Italy for Southwestern Florida for several years, during which he worked to coordinate the Sister Cities re-lationship between Sarasota and Treviso, Italy.

The SCAS Boards of Directors extends our deepest condolences to Richard Storm’s family.

SCAS NEW MEMBERS

Mary Anne Sevian

Karen Zaremba

Mary Ellen McMahon & Frank MacIntire

Michelle Bennet

Katherine Benoit

& John Woods

Doris Hurwitz

Michael Bernard

Robert & Diane Heron

*Note - Members who paid their dues last fall, (2018) will be getting an email to renew their Membership Dues soon. They can pay online via PayPal or send a check payable to SCAS at 111 S. Orange Ave., Suite 103, Sarasota, Fl 34236

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Helena Steiner-Hornsteyn Julia Coll

Cameron & Tom Icard Joan Stencik

WELCOMED

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DATE EVENT

November 7 SCAS Speaker’s Bureau, Selby Public Library

Economic Development in Sarasota and How to Secure a Green Card through Business Investment.

Presenters: Destin Wells, Steve Stancel, Sylva Kanderal, and Craig Hullinger

November 13 Monthly Luncheon, Bird Key Yacht Club Newest Sister City Relationship with Busseto, Italy

Presenters: Maestro Victor DeRenzi and Richard Russell, Sarasota Opera

Alliance Organization News

Organization Event Date Time

The Caledonion Club

of Southwest Florida

Piper in the Park Every Sunday January

1 through March 15

except Super Bowl

Sunday

Half an hour before

sunset

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Alliance Organization News

Asian Film Series at New College

The 2019-20 season’s Asian Film and Talk Series features films addressing immigration, global migration, and cultural conflicts from a diverse range of Asian perspectives, with introductions by New College facul-ty from Economics, Geography, Islamic studies, English, and Asian Studies.

The series is free and open to the public, on Friday nights from 6-8pm at Sainer Auditorium on the New College Campus. A buffet of catered comestibles will be available at 6 pm for those who want to grab a quick bite before the film is introduced at 6:30.

Dates for the season’s remaining films are as follows:

Friday, November 22: Finding Kukan (2016), run time 75 min.

The story of Chinese Hawaii-born Li Ling-Ai, producer of a lost 1941 Academy Award-winning color documentary about World War II China. Introduced by Dr. Fangyu Li.

Friday, February 21: Human Flow (2017), run time 140 min.

A breathtaking epic film journey by artist-activist Ai Weiwei about the global refugee crisis. Intro-duced by Dr. Ilaria Giglioli.

Friday, March 27: The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), run time 130 min.

A political thriller in which a middle-class Pakistani from Lahore chases his dream of success in a prestigious Wall Street firm and finds himself embroiled in a hostage crisis.

A full schedule of other New College events connecting the arts and humanities, funded by a five-year An-drew Mellon Foundation, and free and open to the public can be found on the website

https://www.ncf.edu/about/news-and-events/events-and-conferences/mellon/

A map of the New College Campus can be found at https://www.ncf.edu/admissions/visit-campus/maps-and-directions/

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